Ukraine wants to attract investors to the designated exclusion area around the Chornobyl nuclear disaster site. The government plans to present the site to potential investors at the upcoming Expo-2017 exposition in the Kazakhstan.
Today, the Ukrainian government maintains a 30-kilometer-wide exclusion zone around the nuclear plant.
Part of the area, which is afflicted by high radiation and limited to 10 kilometers away from the blown up power plant, will remain closed. The rest of the territory, which is safe, will be designated as a nature reserve, the Minister for Regional Development Hennadiy Zubko said in an interview to Ukrinform on Dec. 27.
He said that the government decided to lease the state property located in the Chornobyl exclusion zone which they believe may be suitable for a solar power station. The lease cost may be reduced as a benefit to potential investors.
“Perhaps, investors will decide to develop not only a solar energy park. This we will gradually transform the exclusion zone into an investment opportunity,” said Zubko.
Zubko leads the coordination committee responsible for Ukraine’s participation in Expo-2017 that will take place from June 10 to Sept. 10 in the Kazakh capital of Astana. The theme of the Expo-2017 is future energy.
The solar power plan has already attracted some interest from Chinese investors, GCL System Integration Technology announced in November that it intended to cooperate with China National Complete Engineering on building a solar farm in the exclusion zone. The status of that project remains unclear.
In the end of November, the radioactive remains of the Chornobyl power plant’s destroyed fourth reactor were covered by a giant New Safe Confinement. 108 meter high structure sponsored by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development was placed over a crumbling dome build thirty years ago.
